The Tale of the Three Doctors
by Ford.Ye.Fiji
Summary: Once there were three Doctors... But they don't appear in the way you would think.


**A/N: No one has done this, at least not that I can't find. Inspired by a tumblr post. Disclaimer: I don't own Tumblr or Harry Potter or Doctor Who, actually for a moment lets just assume that I don't own anything.**

 **A Tale of Three Doctors,**

(and the rest eventually)

 _"_ _There was once a doctor who was traveling along a lonely, winding road at twilight. In time, the Doctor reached a river too deep to wade through and too dangerous to swim across... However, this Doctor was learned in driving a living contraption called the TARDIS, and so he simply flew across the treacherous water. He was halfway across it when he found his path blocked by a floating hooded figure._

 _And Death spoke to him. He was angry that he had been cheated out of a new victim, for travelers usually drowned in the river. But Death was cunning. He pretended to congratulate the Doctor upon his 'TARDIS' and said that he had earned a prize for having been clever enough to evade him._

 _So the big-eared Doctor, who was a combative man, asked for a thing more powerful than any in existence: a device that must always win duels for its owner, a device worthy of a Time Lord who had conquered Death. So Death crossed to an elder tree on the banks of the river, fashioned a device from a branch that hung there, and gave it to the leather-clad Doctor, it turned the color of metal and the big-eared Doctor called it a 'Sonic Screwdriver.'_

 _Then Death stood aside and allowed the Doctor to continue on his way, and he did so, talking with wonder of the adventure he had had to his TARDIS, and admiring Death's gift. In due course the Doctor managed to reach his destination._

 _The black-haired and big-eared Doctor had traveled on for a week or more, and he had reached a distant village. He sought out a fellow Time Lord with whom he had a quarrel. Naturally with the Sonic Screwdriver as his weapon, he could not fail to win the duel that followed. Leaving his enemy helpless upon the floor, the younger Doctor proceeded to an inn, where he boasted loudly of the powerful screwdriver he had snatched from Death himself, and of how it made him invincible._

 _That very night, another Time Lord crept upon the Doctor as he lay, asleep, upon his bed. The theif took the screwdriver and, for good measure, slit the poor Doctor's throat._

 _And so Death tried to take the big-eared Doctor for his own._

 _But he regenerated._

 _This spiky-haired Doctor decided to return to the river. And Death spoke to him again. He was angry that he had been cheated out of a new victim again, for travelers usually drowned in the river. But Death was, as always, cunning. He pretended to congratulate the pinstriped Doctor upon his 'TARDIS' (again) and said that he had earned a prize for having been clever enough to evade him a second time._

 _Then the second Doctor, who was a burdened man, decided that he needed a greater gift still further, and asked for the power to recall others from Death. So Death picked up a stone from the riverbank and gave it to the second Doctor with the old eyes and young face and brown hair that defied gravity. The stone transformed into a bright red button and Death told him that the button would have the power to bring back the dead._

 _The second Doctor then journeyed to his own home, where he lived alone. Here he took out the scarlet button that had the power to recall the dead, and pressed it in his hand- he never could resist a bright red button. To his amazement and his delight, the figure of the girl he had once hoped to marry, before her untimely separation, appeared at once before him._

 _Yet she was sad and cold, separated from him as by a veil, no longer like the living blooming Rose she had once been. Though she had returned to this mortal parallel world, she did not truly belong there and suffered. Finally the second matchstick-like Doctor, driven mad with hopeless longing, killed himself so as truly to join her._

 _And so Death tried to take the second Doctor for his own._

 _But he regenerated- again. At this point Death was getting very frustrated._

 _This floppy-haired, bow-tie wearing Doctor decided to return to the River. And Death spoke to him again. He was angry that he had been cheated out of a new victim again, for travelers usually drowned in the river. But Death was, as always, cunning. He pretended to congratulate the Doctor upon his continual regeneration and said that he had earned a prize for having been clever enough to evade him-_ _twice_ _._

 _And then Death asked the third and oldest Doctor what he would like. The oldest Doctor was the saddest and also the wisest of the Doctors, and he, at this point, did not trust Death. So he asked for something that would enable him to go forth from that place without being followed by Death. And Death, most unwillingly, handed over his own Wristwatch of Invisibility._

 _But though Death searched for the third bow-tie Doctor for many years, he was never able to find him. It was only when he had attained a great age that the oldest Doctor finally took off the Wristwatch of Invisibility and left it in his TARDIS. And then he greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him gladly, and, as equals, he departed this life._

 _But, much to Death's eternal chagrin, and the Doctor's great delight and surprise- the Doctor slipped again from his grasp and,_

 _He regenerated._

 _Death finally gave up and decided to dedicate himself to making the life of the Doctor as tragic as possible. Death was able to harness the powers of time and Death traveled back and destroyed those precious to the Doctor, one by one:_

 _Susan Foreman, Barbara Wright, Ian Chesterton, Vicki, Steven Taylor, Katerina, Sara Kingdom, Dodo Chaplet, Polly, Ben Jackson, Jamie McCrimmon, Victoria Waterfield, Zoe Heriot, Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, Liz Shaw, Jo Grant, Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan, Leela, Romana, Adric, Tegan Jovanka, Nyssa, Vislor Torlough, Kamelion, Peri Brown, Melanie Bush, Ace, Grace Holloway, (then, his whole planet for goodness sakes!), Rose Tyler, Jack Harkness, Mickey Smith, Martha Jones, Donna Noble, Amy Pond, Rory Williams, River Song, Clara Oswald twice..._

 _Yet, Death could not break the Doctor's spirit and so, the three Doctors were twelve, no thirteen, and the battle of Death and the Doctor continued on."_

 _-As told by a living contraption called the 'TARDIS,' adapted from the tale by Beedle the Bard, 'The Three Brothers.'_


End file.
